The strangest outfits you will see at Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs is allowing its technology workers to dress down. Cue excitement and a rush on high-end jeans. Except Goldman insiders, both in the tech division and without, say unusual clothing is nothing new at GS: there’s been ‘business casual’ in IBD in London for a while (unless you’re going to a meeting), and Fridays in all divisions can be wild.

“Friday is ripped jeans day on the trading floor,” says one GS technologist. “You can’t move for terrible jeans, which are often worn with stupidly expensive brown shoes. And then you have the odd person who likes a Hawaiian shirt.”

“We used to run crazy shirt competitions,” says one recently ex-MD in London fixed income trading. “The same guy won repetitively,” he adds, declining to elaborate further.

In equities, one New York salesman claims man-ankles (mankles) have been in evidence on Fridays. “The older people have been pretty bewildered by the younger people rolling up the cuffs of their pants with sneakers,” he says, adding that the Goldman Friday look – which may now migrate to the whole week in technology – resembles the outfit below for any men under 35.

Goldman’s London bankers deny any knowledge of this, however. “Ankles are not a thing,” says one. “You might wear a leather bracelet to celebrate the fact that it’s summer but it’s going to be chinos and polo shirt, (better still blue or white or striped pique) classic blazer, leather belt and boat shoes with socks. – That’s it, even in NY.”

Nonetheless, some Goldman MDs, who previously espoused Salvatore Ferragamo loafers as their status footwear of choice, are reportedly switching to Yeezy Trainers, designed by Kanye West and costing $170+. “I tell my friends in music that Yeezys aren’t cool any more now that Goldman bankers have discovered them,” says one equities salesman in NY.

Whether Goldman people are wearing Yeezy trainers with their ankles out, or brown Churchills and Shamballa bracelets, one ex-partner does not have encouraging words about Goldman’s new sartorial laxity: “The last time GS relaxed the dress code was summer of 99. Boom. The end. Go get your tie Millennial,” he says.